2nd continued…. Home Time

We all decide we should have a quick snack as the next meal will not be until our Bangkok to Doha flight at 2am tomorrow. That is a sleeper flight so will only serve a light snack and breakfast. At 1pm we trundle next door to Pen Bungalows and have a large table put together. Roger joins us, he has been in Flipflop bar for his last Burmese meat balls and beer chatting to the lovely staff. Celia and Jooles share a whole friend fish with fired garlic, Thai salad and fried rice, it looks delicious, I have pad Thai, Gary has similar. The boys have beers, us girls pineapple milk shakes with a shot of Malibu. Valtar & Clive join us for a beer. I think they really enjoyed our company, they have a few more days left before going their separate ways. We suggest we might see them next year. I rush back to the bungalow as I need to wash my hair and shower and finish packing. It’s all a mad rush now and Roger decides he want to shave and shower at the same time. Gary has told us we need to be at the reception with cases ready to go at 4pm and not a minute later. Hurriedly we put our stuff together forgetting how cold it will be when we reach Norwich airport. I am last at reception, the lovely gardener collects our cases and puts them on the roof of our transport. The entire Thai family have turned up to say goodbye, we hug and they wave us off. I find this extremely emotional they are wonderful people and who knows if I will be lucky enough to see them again. Gary, Jooles and the girls are driving in Dong’s truck that we borrowed. Dong is driving the Hamlins ,Roger & myself in his open air bus. We set off on the scenic route back to Thong Sala to the dock with Gary driving behind us. We are there in no time and all aboard the speedboat. Dong comes with us on the boat. It’s bumpy again but nothing like the original crossing. We all get a bit wet from the sea spray.

A short ride from the dock to the airport. Thong Sala looks quiet maybe because it’s Sunday. At the airport we check in, it’s early so we wander around the small shops, Roger get us a fresh juice which takes forever to produce and costs 300 Baht each but welcome as we have no water now. Through security where my deodorant is confiscated as it’s just 20ml over the limit, darn it was almost empty and I wanted it for the flight. We wait a short while in the departure area then board the little plane for our short flight to Bangkok. It’s a little like the flight from Norwich to Amsterdam. You are just airborn and before long you are down again. We are all excited to get home now and looking forward to our Qatar flights. Us girls go to check in with the luggage and wait in the queue which is not yet open, while the boys return their hired Wifi devices. Eventually check in opens Mike and Celia go first and appear to get through ok and go off to security. The Gilveys go forward after them Roger and I go to another kiosk. Being at the front as we are business passengers there is a huge queue behind us due to all having to do the extra checks that are now required because of the pandemic. We show our vaccination certificate, passports, passenger location forms and assume everything is in order but suddenly the check in assistant tells us we are one hour out of time for our lateral flow test. It will be over 24 hours when we land at Schipol airport so our tests will be out of date. We took it too early and should have done it that morning – we are flabbergasted as we thought we were ok, it’s the PCR test that allows 48 hours and the lateral flow test only 24 hours. We are told we have to go to the medical centre and be tested again before we can check in. It costs 600 Baht for each person – a real racket but a lot cheaper than it would cost in the UK. We are a bit annoyed that my sister got through why not the rest of us as we all did our test at the same time? She alerts the girl at the Gilvey’s Kiosk and they get turned away also. The girls are very apologetic and say they will prepare our boarding passes and keep our luggage behind the kiosk while we are retested. We head for the medical facility the other side of the terminal and three floors down. The testing facility is immediately outside the terminal. We sigh when we see the queue and a guy kicking off holding up registration. Eventually Gary registers us all, hands over our passports and explains our flight leaves imminently ( two hours) and we are promptly shown through to the testing area to wait. We are tested very quickly in a box that resembles a portaloo, you go in the door and a nurse in full combat gear put her hands through two holes in the window to test you. It’s a poke up one nostril and it’s over in seconds. Whilst waiting Gary notices the ambulance at the side of the testing area and a large white secure looking container similar to Doctor Who’s tardis. We quickly realise this is the prison for those who test positive and have to go to hospital for two weeks! Scary stuff. We all get our results in less that ten minutes, negative of course and rush back to check in. This time all goes through correctly – the check in girls are ready for us and we go through security after being fast tracked to the airport departure area. We are invited to the Qatar lounge but it’s located miles away, on the way a strap on Joolia’s sandals breaks and it’s impossible for her to walk in them. What a surprise – amazingly we are just in front of the designer shops and I spy some flip flops at the back of the Salvatore Ferragamo unit. Joolia spots some cute little jelly shoes with a silver bow, just her style and luckily the assistant quickly gives her 3000 Baht discount! On we march to the lounge as we are looking forward to a beverage. It’s bloody miles as there is a temporary lounge whilst the old one is revamped. There we meet up with Celia and Mike who have been relaxing while we have all been stressed out doing our covid tests !!! There is some reasonable food and drink which calms us down!!! When we tell Celia and Mike what had happened they were worried that they might have problems in Amsterdam. After a quick pit stop we all trolly on back to find our gate and board and find our seats. The crew are all adorable Thai’s – so polite and can’t do enough for you. We all settle into the flight after a glass of bubbles and Roger and I snack on a great cheese board. Again given some lovely White Company pj’s each. I watch Stillwater with Matt Damon, a bit of a slow film but I love Mr Damon. I fall asleep for a couple of hours and wake with a terrible headache. I can’t find my tablets in my bag and try and cure it by drinking loads of water. Celia wakes with the same thing. When they serve breakfast I can’t even bare the smell of the warm croissants but manage to find two paracetamol to take. When we get off the flight in Doha which has arrive an hour late due to a big head wind Joolia gives me pills which she says will kill or cure. She later tells me they were Aspirin, paracetamol & caffeine. Well they worked. The head ache subsides but I still feel rough. We head over the airport complex to our next flight to Amsterdam, we get to the gate and find the plane has been changed and we will not have our lovely Qsuite seats as it’s a different seating format. The gate staff will not tell us what’s happened only that it’s due to operational and engine problems and the flight will be delayed. By this we think that some of the staff have covid as we’ve seen lots and lots of cancelled flights on the flight board both here and at Bangkok and they are deep cleaning our plane!!! We hang around the departure gate waiting for our delayed flight concerned about our Amsterdam connection but eventually we board and are pleasantly surprised that we have very roomy seats right at the front of the plane. Gary is ecstatic as he has a window for the first time and takes an amazing video of our take off from Doha showing the F1 circuit, the Doha Football stadium site, lots of empty motorways and buildings. This flight is more comfortable and we all enjoy a delicious meal and wines. Roger has his usual soup followed by a lobster appetiser and a lamb shank in red wine – I don’t know where he puts it all !!! I still feel icky so only manage half a glass of champagne and a light appetiser. I watch another film which I really enjoyed, The Man Who Invented Christmas – a story about Charles Dickens. We are late landing in Amsterdam due to our delayed departure in Doha. We were really worried we will not be able to get through collecting our luggage, immigration and changing terminals to our Norwich flight. Said a quick goodbye to Celia and Mike who were flying to Luton and ran to our departure check out desk. Luck was on our side, we had absolutely nobody in front of us anywhere, which came as a surprise – every check point was deserted, fast track security, health and passport controls, etc and plus we were actually near to the departure gate we needed. Less than 30 minutes later we were onboard the Amsterdam to Norwich flight, all very weary except for Logan who is very excited about seeing Jack her boyfriend whom she really missed this holiday. We enjoyed fine dining on the flight (a packet of crisps and a bottle of water!!!) landed at Norwich and with only a handful of other passengers, we were first off and straight through passport control before the luggage even left the plane. We must have looked a sight in jumper, leggings and flip flops – Roger was still in his shorts. Aspen only had a sleeveless vest so I had to give her my inflight pj’s, she would never be seen dead in normally. It was absolutely freezing cold and the wind howled through the open exit doors. It’s 16.35 pm on 3rd. We have been travelling over 24 hours. Gary ordered a mini bus for us which arrived promptly and before we knew it we were home and dry after one of the most epic memorable holidays ever.